Few big movie franchises are very smart, and few smart ones are very big. The Hunger Games series, which concludes with the thorny new Mockingjay -- Part 2, has left its mark by striking a balance between heft -- brain food, if not brain surgery -- and spectacle, with a healthy dose of moral ambiguity on the side.
The fog of war drifts thick in this final chapter, which finds the lines between the revolutionary and the reactionary growing impressively blurry. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), the hope and symbol of the rebellion, had made it far enough to harbor ambitions of assassinating President Snow (Donald Sutherland, still oozing charming malevolence). But her team, sent to the Capitol, is tasked with propaganda, not combat.
It's a sign of the Hunger Games savvy and ambition that the films -- especially the last two -- acknowledge that revolutions must be not only fought, but also sold.
And sometimes, they might not be as noble as they first appear. The old line from the Who, about the new boss being the same as the old boss, applies pretty well. This means the rebel leader Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) might not have the public interest at heart. To put it in terms more relatable to recent history, regime change can be a drag.
Thankfully, the Hunger Games finale is not. It helps a great deal to have seen the first chapter (the story covered in the two movies takes up but one book), especially if you find yourself wondering why Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) is acting so odd. Part 2 throws you right into the mix where Part 1 left off, almost to the extent of finishing the last scene of the last movie before the title credits come on.
There's still a love triangle, between Katniss, Peeta and Gale (Liam Hemsworth), though romance takes a distant backseat to guerrilla warfare and the arduous task of winning hearts and minds. Katniss and her fellow propagandists find themselves advancing through desolate, colorless urban streets, dodging traps created by game makers and enacting a power struggle within their own ranks. There's an onslaught of black sludge, and a harrowing stretch through the Capitol sewer system. The film balances action and suspense with the kind of political and military gamesmanship that would be at home in a Shakespeare history play (minus the lush language, of course).
Some of the mainstays from previous installments, including Woody Harrelson's Haymitch and Elizabeth Banks' Effie, work the fringes of the finale. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman died before filming was completed, but the relatively minimal presence of his character, the head game maker-turned-rebel wise man Plutarch Heavensbee, is deftly managed.
It's a sign of the movie's strength that we see Hoffman not as an eerie ghost but another cog in a well-oiled machine. It seems the wheels of war keep turning 'round, no matter who's in charge.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2 (B+)
Directed by Francis Lawrence. PG-13 (intense sequences of violence and action, and for some thematic materials). 137 mins. In wide release.
